Techno-economic analysis of organic rankine cycle fueled biomass waste from palm oil mill

Abstract

Indonesia is one of leading countries in palm oil industry in the world producing a 25 billion liters of palm oil annually. With a great potential of resources in Indonesia, residues from palm oil mill (POM) activities are considered as one of major potential fuel and renewable resource for the near future. An organic Rankine cycle (ORC) small scale power plant has been preliminary designed to generate electricity by using the empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm oil shells as biomass waste produced during POM activities. The aim of the paper is the investigation of energetic performance and economic feasibilities of ORC based technology for biomass combined heat and power (CHP) generation, fueled by 60% EFB and 40% palm oil shell. The study demonstrates the technical feasibility of ORC solutions at the POM site in terms of resources optimizations, cost and reducing of greenhouse gas emissions. With the use of R-245fa as organic working fluid, the system of ORC with a recuperator has a higher thermal efficiency and reducing more fuel consumption during the operation compared to the non-use recuperator ORC system. In term of economic analysis, the level cost of electricity system without a recuperator unit less than the system with recuperator unit. However, the system with recuperator unit uses at least 11.5% less biomass as fuel to generate expander power of 2500 kW compared to the system without recuperator.